Planning a Winter Trip When You're Not a Winter Girl: New York Edition

As the white supremacist games kicked off a new round in Washington, D.C. in January, I was having the time of my life in New York. I'm a Caribbean flower who grew up in sunny South Florida, so I'm not made for cold weather. I confirmed this fact after living in Colorado for five years. For three of those five years, I travelled somewhere warm for my birthday. This year, I wanted to go to Guadeloupe, but a cross-country move to Washington, D.C. put that dream on hold. It wasn't fiscally responsible to go to Guadeloupe in 2025, but Gwada will see me in 2026!

I don't know if "Gwada" is an actual nickname for the country, but it feels appropriate here. There's a whole backstory as to why this country moved to the top of my travel destination list, and I'll talk about that if I ever write about my 2024 trip to France.

Anyways, budget-friendly options were few. I didn't want to buy a plane ticket. I considered Ocean City, Maryland. I considered somewhere in Virginia. Then I considered that if I'm going to be cold, I might as well be somewhere exciting, somewhere alive. No shade to Maryland and Virginia.

The New York City lights started flashing ever brighter. I then asked myself what I wanted to do on my birthday? What did I want to be doing on the day? What did New York have over the other two?

Broadway. I wanted to watch a show on Broadway on my birthday. So, New York it was. My friends and I escaped from cold, grey DC to colder, greyer New York. The weather app said it would be a high of 18 degrees on my birthday. My God. But we packed our best layers and puffiest puffers, and we were off.

I'm not a winter girl, but here's the itinerary I put together for this January Winter Trip: New York Edition.

Views from outside Penn Station

We checked into the AC Hotel New York Downtown and went right back out, because we had dinner reservations at Wenwen, a Taiwanese restaurant in Brooklyn. I had never experienced Taiwanese food before, but I enjoyed my order of Lo Ba Beng, a dish comprised of pork belly, rice, a soft-boiled egg, cilantro, pickled mustard green, and peanut butter (not strong enough for me to taste).

How do I describe the vibe at Wenwen? It's cozy and intimate. The space is small, and the lights are turned down low. It was busy when we went, but service was still fast. I recommend it if you like Taiwanese food or if you want to try a new dish. The bathrooms are unexpectedly cute. I'm not talking about a nice couch, intricate mirror, and art on the wall; I'm talking about the ambiance. The one I used had a spinning disco ball and a catchy song that I found myself humming after we left.

It was snowing when we arrived in Brooklyn, and by the time we left Wenwen to walk the 10 or so minutes to Yaro Studios, the snow was falling harder, and the wind was stronger. I'm talking turn around to protect your face strong. But we persevered! We made it to Yaro Studios for a drop-in Wheel Throwing Class. If you're unfamiliar with that term like I was, wheel throwing isn't a physical sport. It's a term for the process of shaping clay on the pottery wheel. If you want a new competitive reality show to watch, my friend learned of a British show called The Great Pottery Throw Down in preparation for this class. There are eight seasons; it's still on; and it's on HBO Max (there are probably clips on YouTube).

I've wanted to take a pottery class for years. Nothing that required actual commitment. I just wanted to create something. I wrote a short-lived "solo date" list two or three years ago and "pottery class" was on it. I didn't attend this class solo, but pottery is officially crossed off the list!

Yaro Studios is minority and woman owned, and the instructor expertly guided us through the craft. She demonstrated the creation process once, then she talked us through a trial run, and we followed step by step. If you messed up, it was no big deal. It was a trial run. And then we were on our own, though she was available for questions. Honestly, it would've been better if she did a step by step walk through one more time, because guess who forgot the steps when she had to fly solo? Me.

Nevertheless, I created two...objects? One looks like a mortar and the other looks like a vase. I think.

Either way, I decided to keep both. Yaro Studios allows you to keep one, included in the class fee ($90 per person when we booked), and if you want to keep your additional creations, I believe it's an extra charge of $14, but don't quote me, because I've forgotten already. They will burn the pottery (or whatever the technical term is), and they will polish it, and it will be available in two weeks. They do not ship, so if you're from out of town, make sure you know a Brooklynite/New Yorker willing to pick up and ship to you.

I found wheel throwing very soothing, and I'd like to do it again. I was more concerned with coherence than perfection. I wanted the object to look like I meant to create it, yes, but I didn't put an emphasis on it looking practiced. I can't wait to see my two babies' final form. They'll be perfect decorations for my new apartment.

When you're planning a winter trip, but you're not a winter girl, you want to be inside as much as possible. There was a DIY element to this trip. Very "local artisan" core. After breakfast at Liberty Bagels, we took a candle making class at Wick and Pour (the one on Bleeker Street).

The decor at Wick and Pour is pink and dreamy. Other than the too small seats, it was a cute experience. The candle making happens at a bar, so we were sitting on bar stools with a back. It's not enough space if you're working with a lot back there. It's not comfortable seating even if you're not.

We chose our preferred jar for the candle, then we got to sniffing, judging between handfuls of scents, most of which didn't smell good to me. Is it a candle thing? When I created a perfume in France (that trip recap is coming, I swear. It's two weeks' worth of activities!), most, and I mean most of the scents were amazing, and there were a lot of options. When it came to the candle scents, literally one smelled good to me, a scent called Aruba Beach. Maybe it's because there aren't a lot of scents that can survive being mixed with hot wax? I don't know.

Under the watchful eye of our instructor, we played chemists. We measured out our chosen scent(s), then we chose a color for our candle (and either gold dust or silver dust). I chose orange and gold. The instructor poured the color and dust into the melted wax, and then we poured in the scent and started mixing.

I named my candle Aruba by Alta. You have to whisper it, like in the perfume commercials. It smells divine, and I can't wait to burn it. That's how I'll christen the new apartment!

We intended to go to the Whitney Museum of American Art. I was super interested in the Edges of Ailey Exhibit, which uses visual art, music, archival materials, and live performances to explore Alvin Ailey's life, but we were all dragging after the candle class (I went to bed at 3:30am the same day I took the train up:)), so we weren't in the right mindset to examine art. We axed the museum and went shopping instead.

I didn't want to leave New York without experiencing New York Haitians' Haitian food, so, that night, we had dinner at a Haitian restaurant in Brooklyn named Djon Djon. All of the Haitian restaurants seemed to be in Brooklyn. If you're Haitian, be forewarned. Djon Djon's menu is...inclusive. For example, there are vegetarian options that aren't strictly Haitian. There are Haitian dishes that are vegetarian, but some of the options for non-meat eaters are dishes you'd find at an American restaurant. On top of that, I ordered griot (duh), and it came with a random sausage. I still don't get it. But I do highly recommend the restaurant, the griot, and the jus corossol. One of my friends ordered the chicken and the other ordered the mushroom ravioli (see?), and both enjoyed their dish.

Griot plate at Djon Djon. Diri djon djon (black mushroom rice) not pictured.

On my big day, we got massages at Season Spa. Raise your hand if you come out of a massage saying you need to get massaged more regularly. And then a year goes by? It's okay. But really, I need to get massaged more regularly! We had reflexology massages on top of the body massage, because we'd been walking around New York. I felt like a new woman walking on brand new feet.

We grabbed a snack and a warm drink at Koré Coffee, then had lunch at Xi'an Famous Foods in Chinatown, where a mishap with a spicy & sour pork dumpling led to me spilling sour and spicy sauce on my coat!

And then it was time to get pretty for Broadway, the main event.

First of all, I bodied my makeup. Second, &Juliet is a musical that explores what could have happened if Juliet didn't kill herself at the end of Romeo & Juliet. It's fanfiction that tells the reimagined tale through scores of pop music from the late 90s and early 2000s, and I looooved it! I loved it so much! To make it even sweeter, Joey Fatone from N'SYNC, the greatest boy band ever, played one of the characters, Lance. Joey was a hoot!

I loved the play, because, on my birthday, I got to relive the most exciting part of my teen hood: the music! And a member of my favorite boy band sang some of their songs. What could be better?! I also loved it because the cast and characters were diverse, and the storyline was inclusive, which was an unexpected surprise. It was a relief to escape into theater at a time when a proponent of exclusion and essentialism was being sworn into the highest office in this country (again).

4+4=ATE!

Y'all not hearing me about the makeup. Look at me again.

After the play, we had dinner at STK Steakhouse, a short three-minute walk from the theater. There, I almost burned down our table. I did not realize there was a real candle on the table, and there I was, waving a paper menu directly above it. Next thing I knew, flames appeared out of nowhere. I blew on the spreading fire, which didn't work, so I crumpled the paper between my hands, which did work.

STK Steakhouse was a vibe, live DJ and all. I don't remember what kind of steak I ordered, but it was delicious and so was the Ceasar salad. The most memorable part was the dessert, recommended by our wonderful server when she learned it was my birthday. The Cloud is a divine sponge cake with strawberry ice cream and white chocolate covered by pink cotton candy. Another server doused the cotton candy with an adult beverage (maybe bourbon?) and set it aflame and as it burned, the delicious goodness inside was revealed.

It was pretty. It was special. It tasted mostly good. I take points away because the adult beverage overpowered the sweetness of the dessert.

Major points to my friends for venturing to New York with me. I'm another year older, another year sweeter. A move across the country means I've been in a transition phase for a few months, four months, to be exact. I'm just now settling into a new apartment in Maryland. I look forward to exploring my new state. I look forward to growing more comfortably into me this year.

And one thing that is very me is, no matter what's happening, if I can fit in a trip, I will. I should tell you about the time I did just that, ahead of fibroid removal surgery. Coincidentally, it was another winter trip!

Are you a winter girl? What is your ideal winter trip?